The following are
excerpts from a speech given by the Hon Cynthia
McKinney, former US Congresswoman at an event
sponsored by PANA.

Thank you to all of you for being here this evening
for this very important meeting...

Our mission is grounded in our deep commitment to
human dignity. We are here because we respect the
humanity of every person on this planet and we hope,
through our good works, to inspire policies from
governments that also reflect that respect for human
dignity.

We are also aware that we can only reach our
aspirations if we rely on truth and embody justice
tempered with compassion. And, so, it is for this
reason that we find ourselves assembled here this
evening: to assert the truth and request of the Obama
and Zardari Administrations, a commitment to justice
with compassion.

In that regard, I am humbled to be with you now, and
to have been asked by the Pakistan-America National
Alliance to travel to Pakistan at this very trying
time in the life of that country.

No American can know of the terrible devastation being
visited upon Pakistan today as a result of cataclysmic
flooding and not be moved. However, when one remembers
that five years ago to this day, our own country was
mired in an embarrassing calamity, resulting from a
levee system that failed to protect the precious City
of New Orleans after two hurricanes had completely
devastated Gulf of Mexico cities and towns throughout
Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. I visited
those towns; I heard from the mayors and elected
leaders; and I did my best to help the people. But the
world saw one of America's best-kept secrets: while
the United States is a world leader, the people of the
United States also need the rest of the world. In the
midst of extreme misfortune, we saw differences put
aside and the world respond to our need.

Sadly, today Pakistan faces a similar challenge of
almost unimaginable proportions. I have seen the
photos, eerily reminiscent of what we saw in the
aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; I have heard
the pleas from my friends inside Pakistan. Every
Pakistani I know, no matter where they might currently
be in the world, is working to come to the aid of
their countrymen. And the numbers are staggering: 20
million people face devastating loss and reportedly
one-fifth of Pakistan is under water. But, I am
pleased to read that, again, the world is responding.

And it is within this vein that I would like to broach
another item requiring our compassionate review: the
matter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. ...an M.I.T.
undergraduate and Brandeis Ph.D. ...who spent her time
researching ways to improve child behavior, was
recently found guilty in New York City of coming from
behind a curtain that hid her, after having been
detained in Afghanistan for "suspicious behavior"
outside an Afghan governor's office, sealing a U.S.
soldier's M-4 rifle, shouting "Allah Akbar" among
other things, and firing the rifle at but missing, and
then assaulting, a U.S. military team and others there
to interview her about the charges. Dr. Siddiqui was
outside the Governor's office with her teen-aged son.

How did Dr. Siddiqui, a U.S.-educated scientist, find
herself in this predicament?

For starters, after irreconcilable differences, she
and her husband divorced; her ex-husband then
reportedly assisted the Pakistani government in
nabbing her after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed named her as
an al-Qaeda operative after he had been waterboarded
183 times. After that, Siddiqui and her three children
went missing for five years, from 2003 to 2008 only to
resurface, along with her son, at the U.S. Air Force
Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, where she was being held
after the suspicious behavior outside of the
Governor's residence. Her son was returned to Pakistan
by Afghanistan in 2008. But that didn't resolve the
matter of her two other missing children: a son and a
daughter. Mysteriously, in April of this year, an
unidentified young girl appeared at a house in Karachi
accompanied by an American that the child called,
"Uncle John." This child later proved to be Dr.
Siddiqui's missing daughter. That leaves now, only the
matter of Dr. Siddiqui's son, still missing, who was
just a baby at the time of his and his mother's
disappearance. Now, there are reports that Dr.
Siddiqui's youngest child was killed at the time of
her abduction. No one knows. At any rate, the two
children are in Karachi in the loving care of their
family members while their mother awaits sentencing,
expected to occur on September 23rd in New York City.

Now, I recount most of this story to you who are here
and I know that you already know far more details
because you have been following this drama for years,
now. But sadly, the American people are fed a media
diet of Paris Hilton cocaine busts and celebratory
slaps on the back for an announced U.S. end to combat
in Iraq while the real news of true unemployment
figures, our failing education system, our failing
justice system, our failed immigration policy, failed
safe food policy combined with fewer and fewer real
political options for U.S. voters, coupled with rising
racial, ethnic, and religious strife in this country
go underreported.

So, what are we to do?

I first became aware of the plight of Dr. Siddiqui
through another of our beleaguered sisters, attorney
Lynne Stewart, who sits now in prison for providing
legal representation to someone accused and later
found guilty of terrorism. It was Stewart's support
committee that first alerted me to the plight of Dr.
Siddiqui. Then, more and more messages came into my
e-mail box from people I either knew or had heard of,
and then finally I took the time to read the complaint
against Dr. Siddiqui and began to realize just how
curious this case really was.

I understand that members of the British and Pakistani
Parliaments have written to President Obama asking
that Dr. Siddiqui be returned to Pakistan where her
loving family and an intensely-interested population
follow every item about her fate and await her return.

Today, I have sent a message to the White House, State
Department, and to the Justice Department asking that
Dr. Siddiqui be repatriated to Pakistan so that she
can serve her term in prison at home, close to her
children. This is something that can be done and I
believe that, particularly now, during the high holy
days of Ramadan, and at a time when Dr. Siddiqui's
long lost returned daughter is sharing her first fast
with her family, this is a particularly compassionate
thing that our government can do.

As the U.S.-Pakistani relationship rocks from the
latest mistreatment, yesterday, at Dulles Airport of a
visiting Pakistani military delegation, and the
country seems purposely embroiled in the discussion of
a local land use and zoning issue in New York City, I
believe that this compassionate act by the Obama
Administration would go a long way toward improving
U.S.-Pakistan relations. Additionally, a human
rights-human dignity-based U.S. foreign policy would
certainly improve the safety and security of Americans
as we travel around the world.

Finally, there was a time when we were looked up to
and loved around the world. We served as a beacon of
what was possible and to the global community, we were
considered something good about the world. Too much of
our goodwill has been squandered and in many places
the United States is no longer accepted.

Glen Beck's rally was intended to restore our
country's honor. I envision the day when our policies
move us, honorably, back to acceptance and even
affection. I hope that President Obama will utilize
this moment and allow Dr. Siddiqui to go home.